Fever Dreams
by Annie-chan
Summary: Dilandau has taken very, very ill, and the Dragon Slayers must contend with the very real possibility of losing him. MOVIE SPOILERS!


**Author's Notes:**  I have recently fallen absolutely in love with Dilandau Albatou.  My friends know this very well, in fact. XD  Anyway, he's contesting Chichiri as my fave anime/manga character, and that's saying quite a lot.  Now, I've rented and seen the whole series, and I've bought the movie (ultimate version…three disc set! XD).  I've also written a fic about series Dilandau ("Separation", if you're interested), but I haven't seen many fics based off the movie.  So, I decided to write one myself. ^_^  Now, if you haven't seen the movie, you will be very confused, so let me explain some things a bit.  There are SPOILERS, so stop reading now if you don't wanna find out the differences between series Dilandau and movie Dilandau.

First off, there is no Celena.  Movie Dilandau is a born and raised male with no connections to Allen at all.  Also, he's not full human.  In the series, he's a full-blooded human, and Van and Folken are half-draconians.  In the movie, Dilandau's a half-draconian, and the Fanel brothers are full-blooded draconians.  Cool, ne? ^_^  Folken found him roaming free with wild dogs, recognized his draconian blood, and "rescued" him, making him a scion of the Black Dragon Clan (there is no Zaibach, the main enemy in the movie being the Black Dragon Clan, headed by Folken himself).  Then, the Dragon Slayers have been reduced from fifteen to six, and three survived through the end of the movie (yay!  Dilandau's not alone anymore!).  In any case, these and many other differences make me call the movie an AU instead of a retelling, as the back of the DVD case says.

I know that the terms "draconians" and "Dragon Slayers" aren't used in the movie, being replaced with "Black Dragon Clan" and "Dragon Cavalry", but I decided to keep the terms from the TV series.  I like them better.

One more note:  This fic is about the bonds of deep friendship.  There are gonna be indications of shônen ai, but that's not what I'm intending in this particular fic.  I'm a yaoi and shônen ai supporter, but, as I said, this fic is about something else.  I guess you can think I'm still saying they're gay…that's your choice to ignore the author's intent.  Nimrods… XP

None of the characters in here belong to me.  I'm just borrowing them for the time being to write this fic.  Suing me is bad, so please don't do it.

Fever Dreams 

By Annie-chan

Dilandau gritted his teeth has he peered through the underbrush.  It was about time to eat, and he was starved.  If only that wild fowl would cooperate…

He glanced past the bird, and saw that his Dragon Slayers had surrounded it.  Shesta was directly across from him, Gatty was on his left, and Ryuan was on his right.

He readied his knife.  The other three were going to drive it toward him, and he'd make a quick kill.  They had been hunting for their food like this for the past year and two months.  Ever since the fall of the Black Dragon Empire, they had had no allegiance to anyone, and decided to live the wanderers' life for the time being, until they found something else to dedicate themselves to.  He supposed it was probably more efficient to hunt with the bow and arrow, but neither he nor any of his Slayers were very skilled at it, and none wished to learn.  Hunting like this had worked fine so far, at any rate.  Living with wild dogs for most of his childhood had taught him to hunt by himself with nothing but his teeth and fingernails as tools.  Hunting with three other men, all carrying knives, was relatively easy.

He tucked his silver hair back behind his ear.  He hadn't cut it since he was under Folken's command, and it had grown down to his shoulders.

A loud squawk caught his attention, and he brought his eyes back to his quarry just in time to have it come barreling right into him.  He grabbed wildly at it, catching hold of its disproportionately small head before it could slip away.  A sharp _crack_ was heard, eliminating the need for him to use his knife.

"Well…that's done it," he said, holding the bird up, its head flopping on its broken neck.  "Come on, let's go fix this bird."  He stood up and headed back toward where they had made camp for that night.

The other three pushed through the thin wall of branches and followed, Shesta nursing a scrape on his hand where the bird had pecked at him earlier.

Dilandau slung the bird over his shoulder by its feet and breathed in deeply.  "Ah, summer afternoon…"

He suddenly stopped and stood stock-still.  Something was near, and he got the feeling it wasn't friendly.  "Shesta," he asked.  "Something's watching us…what is it?"

The small-statured psychic closed his eyes, letting his head fall back as he extended his awareness outward.  "A…a wolf, Master Dilandau," he murmured in that odd way that he did whenever he went into a seeing trance.  "A large male, healthy-looking, strong…and, it's right…in…front…!"  He trailed off, snapping back to full consciousness, his wide eyes fixed on his master.

Dilandau brought his gaze downward and in front of him, and saw two yellow eyes staring at him through the foliage.  His body stiffened.

_Oh, shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit…_ he thought.  _We've wandered right into his territory._  He recognized that stare from his youth.  That stare meant you were inferior, and you'd better either show submission, intimidate me, or get seriously hurt.

He and the wolf stared each other down for another few seconds before everything happened.  The growling wolf had had enough of the intruders and pounced with a snarl.  Dilandau dropped the bird and instinctively brought his arm up in front of him, shielding his face.  Sharp teeth clamped down on his arm, agonizing pain shooting though his nerves, forcing a cry of pain from his throat.  The wolf's teeth were sudden ripped away, further tearing the flesh.  His Dragon Slayers had leapt at about the same time the wolf had, and one of them, probably through a lucky chance, had embedded his knife right into the wolf's neck, killing it.

"Master Dilandau!" Gatty cried, bending over him as he lay curled on the ground, clutching his wounded arm to him.  "Are you all right?"

"No," Dilandau grated, uncurling and managing to sit up by himself, despite the pain.  "I'll be fine, though."  He forced himself up on his feet.  "Come on.  Someone else carry the bird.  Leave the wolf."  With that, he started off again toward the camp, his injured arm cradled gently in the other.

The other three glanced at each other.  Dilandau never willing showed it if he was suffering, so the fact that he was in obvious pain suggested that it was a lot worse than a simple bite.  Perhaps the pain was more than Dilandau could easily stand.  In any case, none of them could do anything about it.  They simply shrugged and followed him back, Ryuan with the bird slung over his shoulder.

When they got there, Dilandau walked over to where the horses were tethered and dug out a roll of bandages from a small bag strapped onto his horse's saddle.

"Uh…Master…?" Shesta ventured as Gatty struck up a fire and Ryuan began plucking the wild fowl's bluish-white plumage.  "Maybe you should put something on that?  It would lessen the chance of infection."

"I'm fine," Dilandau muttered, holding one end of the strip he had torn off with his teeth as he wrapped the other end around his forearm.  "I've survived worse than this without so much as a bandage."  He stuffed the roll back in the bag.  "Now, I'm going to go get some water."  He unhooked a small water bucket off the back of Gatty's horse and disappeared in the direction of where a brook could be heard.  The signs of his discomfort seemed to have disappeared.

Shesta rubbed the back of his head.  Master Dilandau had lived without proper medical care for about ten years before Lord Folken had found him.  Even now, the albino didn't seek out medical attention unless he absolutely had to, as if he was actively avoiding it.  It worried Shesta and the others to no end if he got an injury like that and didn't even clean it out.

"Gyack!"  SPLASH.

All three of them looked up.  Apparently, their master had taken an unplanned dive.  Shesta looked back at the others, then followed where his master had gone.

"Master!" he called when he broke into the small clearing the brook was flowing through.  Dilandau had tripped somehow, and fallen into a shallow, muddy outlet on the side of the stream, and was just now wading out, looking very perturbed.  "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Dilandau said, shaking the water out of his hair.  He dumped the muddy water out of the bucket, walked over to where it was flowing clear, and filled it.

"That water looked pretty murky," Shesta commented, crouching down next to Dilandau.  The bandages, as well as the rest of him, were soaked.  "Are you _sure_ you don't want me to put anything on it…?"

"I'll live," Dilandau snapped, shooting a glare at his smallest Slayer.  He hated it when people asked questions he had already answered.

Shesta shrank back a bit.  A glare from those red eyes, even a quick one, was unnerving.

"Besides," Dilandau continued, straightening up, "our medical supplies got ruined a few days ago, remember?  We have to get new ones next we come to a town."

"Oh…" Shesta said.  A few days ago, they had come back from bathing in a small, clear lake to find a wild pig in their camp.  It had scattered their medical supplies, among other things, everywhere, rendering them useless, as it had then proceeded to trample them into the grass.  Dilandau had made that wild pig their dinner that night.  Shesta got up and followed his master back to camp.

Dilandau transferred the water into a small pot and set it over the fire to boil when they got back.  "I'll be right back," he said as he stood up again.  "I need to change out of these wet clothes so I can lay them out to dry."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning was routine.  Get up, get cleaned up, eat, and get ready to go.

Dilandau stood up and stretched, letting his back pop.  Ah, that always felt so good after being curled up all night…

He blinked when he found himself looking straight up at the sky from where he lay on his back, his Dragon Slayers bending over him.

"Are you all right…?" Ryuan asked, extending a hand to help him back up.  "You just suddenly keeled over."

"Uh…yeah," Dilandau answered, surprised he had fallen so quickly.  "I guess I had just stood up too quickly."

"But," Gatty commented, "you got up rather slowly."

Dilandau eyed him for a minute, then shrugged.  The Dragon Slayers glanced at each other again.  Their master seemed slightly ill.  However, the rest of the morning's activities went without incident, so they couldn't say anything, really.

"All right," Dilandau said, brushing his hair back behind his ears as he walked over to where the horses were grazing.  "Let's go."  He grabbed hold of the pommel on the saddle, hoisted himself up, and…

"Master Dilandau!" the Dragon Slayers all said at once.  Dilandau had fallen right back down to the ground, and was now pushing himself up into a sitting position.

"Are you all right…?" Shesta asked.

"You just fell right down…" Ryuan murmured, looking at the horse.

"That's the second time this morning," Gatty finished.

"I'm fine," Dilandau half-growled, annoyed at the three boys gathered around him, standing up.  "I just didn't get a tight enough grip, that's all."

"But…"

Dilandau silenced Shesta with a glare, turned, and mounted his horse with apparent ease.  He was not happy.  He didn't like being babied, and that's what his Slayers were doing.  All because of a simple dog-bite on his arm.

Nothing else was said as they all mounted and set off.  None of the Dragon Slayers wanted to get hit or yelled at by their leader, and he was apparently in a bad mood, which meant he was more likely than ever to do that if they crossed him.  However, the desire to see what was wrong with him was almost overwhelming.  He didn't take care of himself well enough when injured unless forced to, and he was running the risk of making it very bad.

"Ah, a field," Dilandau said as they exited the trees a little while into a large meadow in the middle of the huge forest.  He looked back to the others.  "Let's run."  Without waiting for an answer, he spurred his horse and set off at a medium run though the clearing.  The Dragon Slayers followed suit, rejoicing to feel the wind in their hair, despite their misgivings over their master's well-being.  They had been in the trees for days, and hadn't had a chance to run like this since they entered the forest.  It was a welcome change.

Gatty looked at Dilandau, and felt his eyebrows draw together as he realized that he seemed too loose in his seat, not holding himself properly for a run on horseback.  It was hard on the joints to sit like that…

His eyes widened and he cried out, in unison with the other two, as Dilandau's horse suddenly jumped to clear a small boulder that was in its way, throwing Dilandau from the saddle.  His thin, wiry body fell from the saddle as easily as if he had been asleep.  He hit the ground with an audible _thump_, rolling twice before coming to a stop in a small cloud of disturbed dirt, half-facedown.  He lay there, motionless, perhaps knocked out.  The horse slowed to a stop, as it was trained to do if it lost its rider.

The other three pulled their horses up short, quickly dismounting and running over to their prone leader.  Ryuan grabbed hold of him and gently rolled him over onto his back.  Dilandau looked groggy, as if he had been forcibly woken from sleep.  "W-what was that…?"

"You were thrown from the saddle," Ryuan answered, helping him into a sitting position.  "At that speed, and over a jump that small, there's no way you'd fall off, unless you hadn't been holding on at all.  Are you all right?"  He peered into Dilandau's half-closed eyes.

"I'm getting sick of that question," Dilandau grumped, trying to stand up.  Ryuan wouldn't let go.  Dilandau glared at him.  "What's your problem?  I'm _fine_, I say!"

"No, you're not," Shesta said, with more force than his gentle voice usually displayed.  He laid hold of the wrist of Dilandau's injured arm, and began unwrapping the bandage.  He grimaced.  The bandages were slightly damp.  He hadn't changed them after he had fallen into that murky water.

"Hey!" Dilandau protested, trying to pull away, gritting his teeth as it proved harder than it should have been.  "What are you doing?  There's nothing wrong with me!"  He started when Gatty pulled off one of his thin leather gloves and laid a hand on his forehead.

"There certainly _is_ something wrong with you," he said, a little too grimly for Dilandau's taste.  "You've got a fever, and you're sweating way too much for this temperature."

"Huh…?" Dilandau questioned as Shesta pulled the bandages completely off his arm.  The psychic sucked in his breath in a quiet hiss and swore softly.  The injured area was inflamed, the wounds themselves very raw.

"I told you to let me put something on it!" he admonished.  "Now, it's infected, and who knows how badly?"

Dilandau felt like smacking his smallest Dragon Slayer.  He didn't like being spoken to in such a manner.  However, it seemed his energy had been sapped by something, and he suddenly felt very tired.  "I know, I know…"

The Dragon Slayers looked at each other worriedly when they saw their leader seemingly deflate a bit.  For the first time since he had bandaged his arm last night, they saw the tenseness in his face, the slight glaze in his eyes, indicating he was hurting badly, and doing his all to conceal it.

"I was able to salvage some antiseptic paste from when the boar was in our camp," Shesta said, standing up and opening one of his saddle packs.  "I think it's just enough for a wound like that.  I should put it on you."

"But," Dilandau said, his breathing a little deeper than was normal, "the infection's already set in.  Putting that stuff on my arm won't reverse it."

"It's better than nothing," Shesta answered, coming back over with a small jar.  "Gatty, get one of the bridles off the horses.  He should have something to bite down on.  This might hurt."  He popped the seal on the jar and stirred the paste in the bottom with a small applying stick.  "Ryuan…you might have to hold him still."

Dilandau gulped as Ryuan moved behind him, placing one arm around his shoulders, the other hand holding tightly to his wrist next to the wounds.  Pain from injuries or illness, he could handle.  But, watching someone apply some medical substance to him and feeling pain from that made his stomach turn, for some reason.  He gladly accepted the bridle from Gatty, placing one of the leather straps between his teeth.  His arm hurt enough already…

He gasped brokenly, his body stiffening and his teeth clamping down on the leather as Shesta started smoothing the paste over his wounds.  He squeezed his eyes shut, tears pricking beneath the eyelids.  Oh, sweet gods, it HURT!

Shesta gritted his teeth as Dilandau began thrashing too much for Ryuan to easily control.  "Gatty, hold his legs.  I need him still for this."

A ragged sob escaped his throat as Gatty took hold of his legs and held them still.  Oh, it hurt…it hurt so bad…oh, gods, please let him die…

He felt a scream building in the back of his throat when it finally faded a little.  His body loosened, and he fell limp against the two holding him still as he felt Shesta's cool fingers gently wrapping new bandages around his arm.  He groaned weakly.

"I'm sorry," Shesta half-whispered, securing the bandages.  "But, it wouldn't have hurt near as much if you had let me do this before the infection set in."

Dilandau tried to growl, but all that came out was another soft moan.

A few minutes later, he lay in a doze, his back propped up against the boulder as his Dragon Slayers perused the map of the area they had gotten in the last town they were in.

"We're ten days from the nearest town, not including the rest of today," Gatty observed.  "He'll have to hold out until then if we're going to get him any proper treatment.  If we want to put anything else on that wound, we'll have to find it on our way.  Shesta, you can identify medicinal plants, right?"

As Shesta nodded, Dilandau spoke up from the boulder.  "Ten days, huh…?"  He shifted in an attempt to get more comfortable.  "No problem.  Most fevers pass long before ten days are up."

The three looked at each other, their brows furrowed in consternation.  Fevers from illness often faded in a few days, yes, but fevers from blood poisoning went on until the infection was purged from their system.  Or…until they died.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dilandau stirred and muttered something unintelligible as he slipped off his horse into the arms of one of his Dragon Slayers, who gently laid him down into the soft grass.  They were a little ways into the forest on the other side of the meadow, and were going to set up camp for the night.

Dilandau had fallen into a daze earlier, and couldn't hold himself up on his horse, even at a walk.  To remedy this, Gatty had transferred the supplies Dilandau's horse was carrying to his own, tethered his horse to Dilandau's, and remounted behind his master, his arm loosely around Dilandau's waist to keep him steady.  Dilandau had protested a little, but soon submitted.  He had been relatively quiet since then.  The only sounds he made was occasional mutterings too quiet for them to make out, and his breathing, which was harder than normal, but not quite hard enough to be called heavy.

Several minutes passed, wherein he paid little attention to his surroundings.  He jumped when an arm slipped under his shoulders and pulled him up into a half-sitting position, the hand supporting his head.  He felt something hard and thin slip between his lips and teeth.

"Come on," he heard Shesta's voice say as he gently introduced the open neck of a drinking flask full of water to his master's parched mouth.  "Drink this."

Dilandau hadn't noticed his own thirst until the first cool drops washed over his tongue.  He drank greedily, reaching up with his uninjured arm and grasping the flask, refusing to let Shesta pull away until he had satiated his thirst, almost draining all the water.  His body shivered in unspeakable relief.

"Thank you," he whispered as Shesta put the flask down, speech coming easier to him now that his throat was moistened again.

"Are you all right?" Shesta asked, worry lining his face.  "Gatty and Ryuan have left to find something to eat, and I've stayed behind to look after you."

"Oh, I'm fine," Dilandau responded, a shadow of his usual cocky grin gracing his face.  "Never felt better."

Shesta nodded, but couldn't help noticing the changes that had come over his leader.  His skin was burning hot and slick with sweat.  His face was pulled tight from the pain that was burning his arm, and when Shesta held very still, he could feel his body trembling almost unnoticeably.  And, if Shesta looked down, he could see that Dilandau was cradling his injured arm to his chest with the other.  He reached to his left and pulled the filled water bucket closer, reaching inside and pulling out the cloth he had deposited in the water.  He wrung it out and gently applied to cool, damp cloth to Dilandau's face, mopping the sweat off his skin.

Dilandau seemed to relax a bit.  "Mmm…" he moaned softly.  "Shesta…that feels good."

Shesta patiently bathed Dilandau's face and neck with the cloth until he felt satisfied that Dilandau was relaxed enough, and he had sufficiently cleansed the sweat from his skin.  He carefully laid him back down on the grass, smoothing his hair back from his closed eyes.  "Lie still and rest.  You need to conserve your strength."

A small smile made its way to Dilandau's lips.  "Jajuka used to say things like that to me when I was sick," he murmured.  He opened his ruby eyes, a faraway look in them.  "Lord Folken put me in his care when he took me in.  I was more comfortable with him than with anyone else.  He was a dog-man, after all.  I wasn't used to being around other humans and draconians."  He closed his eyes again, a wistful tone creeping into his voice.  "He was always so nice to me.  Oh, he was firm, of course, but he made me like him so much.  He never treated me badly, even when I got out of hand and started hitting him."  His eyes opened again.  "I can hear him now…he's…he's speaking to me…"  That faraway look returned, more forceful this time.

Shesta grabbed his shoulder and shook him gently, but hard enough to jar.  "Don't listen," he said, a strangely pleading tone underlying his words.  "Don't listen to him.  They say that, if you hear the voices of the dead in fever dreams, you're too close to them.  You'll be too willing to let go of life for the chance to see him again."  He caught up Dilandau's hand and squeezed it.  "I-I don't want you to die, Master Dilandau.  Gatty and Ryuan don't, either."

"Oh, Shesta," Dilandau chided, smiling softly.  "You've always been so superstitious."  His smile faded when he saw the desperate look in Shesta's eyes.  He sighed.  "All right…all right.  I won't listen to dead people's voices anymore."

Shesta sighed in relief.  "Thank you, Master."

"Mmnnn…" Dilandau groaned, settling deeper in the grass on the forest floor.  "I feel so tired…"  He trailed off, his eyes sliding closed as sleep claimed him, sweeping him off into a world of bizarre fever-induced dreams.  Some were oddly pleasant; some were horribly frightening.  And, when he woke up the next morning, he could scarcely recall that he had dreamed anything at all.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next three days passed in a haze for Dilandau.  He barely remembered much of anything, save the agonizing pain in his arm and the growing weakness spreading through his body.  He was even having trouble recognizing the three people around him every once in a while.

The worry that Shesta, Gatty, and Ryuan had was getting worse all the time, and was finally beginning to dissolve into outright fear.  Their master was going in and out of delirium, and even his lucid periods were trance-like.  He often spoke in disconnected phrases that many times had nothing to do with each other, and the Dragon Slayers had since given up hope of making any sense out of his ramblings.

Seven days from the nearest town, they chose a quiet clearing in the woods to rest for the night.  All three Dragon Slayers were weary, much of their energy for the past three days being used up tending to their leader.  Dilandau lay on the grass, his chest heaving shallowly with every breath, his head lolling back and forth as he muttered randomly.  It was a warm evening, though not hot.  However, he was sweating like it was eighty degrees out.

Gatty was gazing thoughtfully toward the small, clear-watered pond that stood at the edge of the clearing.  "We oughta wash up," he commented.  He nodded toward Dilandau.  "Especially him.  He's been sweating like a horse since the infection set in, and a bath would probably make him feel a lot better."

The other two nodded.  Whenever they were sick, a bath always helped to alleviate the discomfort, at least for a little while.

"All right," Shesta said.  "He'll need help, though…he seems pretty out of it right now, and the water may not wake him up enough."  He pulled at his collar.  "We should wash our clothes as well."

A few minutes later, they were next to the pond, the horses tethered nearby, grazing.  They usually bathed together like this.  The six Dragon Slayers had all been raised together—Lord Folken had taken them as orphans off the streets when they were all very young—sharing one big washroom and bathing at the same time every couple of days.  Dilandau hadn't joined them until later, but he had spent the first ten or so years of his life naked in the woods with a pack of wild dogs.  He obviously had no problem with nudity.

Ryuan had carried a seemingly unconscious Dilandau over from the small campsite, and had laid him on his back on the ground near the water.  As he began undoing the laces of Dilandau's shirt, however, Dilandau's uninjured arm swung up, grabbing hold of Ryuan's wrist.  Startled, Ryuan looked into his master's face.  Dilandau's eyes were half-mast, but his eyebrows were arched downward in a "What the hell are you DOING?!" look.

"It's all right," Shesta said gently, kneeling down next to them, divested of all but his pants.  "We're just going to get you cleaned up.  It will make you feel better."

Dilandau closed his eyes and relaxed his grip on Ryuan's wrist, but still looked a little uncomfortable.  He didn't mind nudity, but he didn't like the idea of others undressing him, if the Dragon Slayers remembered right.  Several years ago, when they were all about eleven, a doctor and a nurse had come in to perform a quick checkup on all seven of them.  Dilandau had been first, and the nurse had asked him to remove his shirt, but when he hadn't, not knowing what for, she had taken hold of the hem and pulled it up over his head.  The next anyone knew, Dilandau had wedged himself under the doctor's wheeled table, looking mad enough to bite anyone who came near him.  The doctor and nurse had managed to coax him out, and the checkup went smoothly after that, but the Dragon Slayers had since made a point of not "helping" him out of anything, even if the fastenings got stuck somehow and he had to fight to get out of it.  Dallet had once tried, but Dilandau had scared him off with a glare cold enough to freeze mercury.

Shesta frowned as he removed the bandage once Dilandau lay naked on the grass.  Red lines had appeared on his skin the day after he had first gotten sick, and they were growing longer every day.  They followed the tracks of his veins, a telltale sign that the blood poisoning was getting worse.

As Gatty gathered up their clothes and went to the other side of the pond to wash them before he washed himself, Ryuan picked up the complacent Dilandau and waded in, kneeling down when he was knee deep, gently lowering Dilandau into the cool water.

Dilandau gasped and jolted when he touched the water.  "C-cold…"

"It's all right," Shesta soothed, kneeling down on the other side of Dilandau, opposite Ryuan.  "Once the water cools your skin, it shouldn't be too bad."  He had two large washcloths, which he soaked in the water.  "I'll need you to help me with this," he told Ryuan.  "You hold him like that.  I can't hold him up and wash him at the same time."  He looked at Dilandau's face and was relieved to see that he had stopped shivering, and his face had turned serene.  It was much nicer than the pinched, pained look that had graced his face for the past few days.

"All right," Shesta said when he had finished with him, including his hair.  "We should lay him in the sunshine and put a blanket over him.  We don't want him catching a chill."

When that was done and his arm rebandaged, their clothes also laid out in the sun to dry, the three Dragon Slayers took the time to take their own baths, then relax a bit in the water, letting the coolness soothe their tired muscles and weary minds.

"Do…do you think he's going to make it…?" Gatty ventured after a long silence.  He and Ryuan looked at Shesta.  Shesta was fascinated with the inner workings of the body, and had said once that, if he ever left the Dragon Slayers for some reason, he'd probably try to become a health care professional, and had spent much of his free time reading medical journals and studying diagrams of the different parts of the body.  As a result, he probably had a better idea of what was going on with Dilandau than the other two.

"Well…" Shesta answered after a moment of thought.  "Considering what I can tell of the seriousness of the infection, I would have thought he'd be worse by now than he is.  You know…more difficulty breathing, and stuff like that.  But, he _is_ half-draconian, after all.  I read in several places that draconians have stronger immune systems than humans, as well as higher overall vitality.  So, I'd say he has better chance of making it than any of us would in the same situation."  He lowered his eyes and spoke softly.  "But…even if he does make it to town…it doesn't mean he'll live."

A stony silence fell upon the three, and they wouldn't look at each other.  Though he was the last to join their little group of eight (including Jajuka), Lord Folken had put Dilandau in command, and he had managed to turn them from a group of rowdy, headstrong boys into one of the best single fighting forces Folken had.  They all loved their master, and any would gladly give their life to save his, their loyalty to him far surpassing their loyalty to Folken.  None of them wanted to think on what they might do if they lost him…

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Four days later, Dilandau had since slipped into a permanent daze.  He didn't seem to notice much of his surroundings, and he was almost constantly murmuring incoherently.  His wound wasn't healed as much as Shesta estimated it should have been after seven days, and the red lines were a good ways up his arm toward his shoulder.  Whenever his bandages were changed, one Dragon Slayer had to hold his arm still while another took the bandages off, cleaned the wound, and put new bandages on.  The area was so sensitive to the touch, that he had screamed when Gatty's thumbnail had once brushed over the skin just the tiniest bit.  The skin was badly inflamed and very hot, even compared to the rest of his feverish body.

"Hnnnnngh…" he groaned as he lay on the grass, his glazed-over eyes darting back and forth under his half-closed eyelids, his head turning slowly from side to side.  Gatty sat next to him—Shesta and Ryuan had gone to find something to eat—looking very agitated and very tired.  All three of the Dragon Slayers were worn out and jumpy from caring for their ill leader as well as the nearly overwhelming fear that he would die.  Shesta's telling them that draconians were stronger than humans, and Dilandau's half-draconian ancestry made it more likely he'd survive, did nothing to calm their fears.  He was sinking further and further every day, and they dreaded his seemingly inevitable death.

Dilandau let his head fall to the side, staring off to his right.  His eyes widened.  Even in this fever-induced stupor, he recognized his own intense thirst, and he knew water when he saw it.  They had camped by the banks of a small stream, and it was only about fifteen feet to his right…

He heaved his weight up and over so he lay on his stomach, his cheek against the thick grass.  Stretching his good arm out in front of him, he grasped the ground, his fingers digging into the dirt, and, with incredible effort, dragged himself a little toward the water.

Gatty made no move to stop him.  His weariness and exhaustion had coaxed him into sleep where he sat near Dilandau.

Dilandau, his concept of time gone for the past couple of days, did not know how long it took.  But, his indescribable thirst and his desire to quench it somehow saw him through, and he finally found himself on the edge of the stream, ready to faint from the sheer effort he had just put out.  He dropped his entire face into the water, opening his mouth and letting the cool water flow inside.

Gatty jolted awake.  _Oh, no!_ he thought.  _I fell asleep!_  He glanced over at Dilandau and felt his heart stop.  He wasn't there.  He glanced frantically around, his blood turning to ice water when his eyes fell on him.  He was lying motionless on the edge of the stream, his face completely in the water.

With a hoarse cry, he launched himself forward, covering the fifteen feet in two bounds.  He grabbed Dilandau's shoulders and yanked him up.  When Dilandau came up gasping and coughing, Gatty felt a wave of relief so intense wash over him he felt about ready to vomit.  He had been sure Dilandau had been drowned.

"W-wa…water…" Dilandau gurgled, some liquid stuck in his throat.  "Thirsty…"

"If you're thirsty, you could have just asked for a drink from one of the water skins!" Gatty replied, his voice high from the lingering feelings of hysteria.  Dilandau could have died, and it would have been all his fault for not keeping constant watch on him.  That knowledge had allowed a cold sweat to break out over his skin.

Gatty got Dilandau back to the spot they had laid out for him.  Dilandau couldn't walk, so Gatty had had to pick him completely up and lay him down again on his back.  He unscrewed the top off one of the water flasks, propped Dilandau up, and let him drink.

When he had finished, Dilandau let his head loll back with a soft, mewling groan.  He had lapsed into unconsciousness again.  Gatty gently laid him back down and pulled the blankets up from where he had kicked them off, laying them over him again.

"We're back," he heard Ryuan's voice say, and Gatty turned to see him and Shesta walk back into the clearing.  They were both carrying a few small rabbits, Ryuan also having a hold of what looked like a groundhog.  "We ran into a warren over yonder," he said, pointing back the way they came.  "Wasn't too hard to pick a few off."  He indicated the groundhog.  "And, we got this rat-like thing on the way back.  We got enough to eat."

"Hey…" Shesta said, setting his catch down on the grass near where they had placed a circle of stones to be the fire pit.  "Why is Master Dilandau wet…?"

Gatty wouldn't look at them.  "He dunked his head in the stream trying to get a drink after I dropped off to sleep."  He sniffed, sounding like he was about to cry.  "He could have drowned, and it would have been all my fault!"

Ryuan had put his kill down, and scooted over toward Gatty.  "C'mon," he said, trying to be soothing, though it wasn't his forte.  "Don't cry.  All's well that ends well, right?  You saved him, that's all that counts."

Gatty's lower lip trembled, and his eyes glittered with unshed tears, but he managed not to start weeping.  He nodded, took a deep breath, and made a valiant effort to calm himself.

"Well," Shesta said, fishing a small knife they used to skin small animals with out of a bag he had taken off his horse earlier.  "We should eat to keep our strength up, and we need to see if Master Dilandau will eat a little.  Perhaps he'll take some food tonight."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The middle of that night…

Dilandau hadn't eaten any that night.  He hadn't eaten anything for the past two days, actually, and he was starting to lose weight from malnourishment as well as his body's efforts to fight off the poison.  They didn't want to try to force-feed him, for they were afraid of triggering his gag reflex and causing him to vomit up whatever they had managed to get down, which would mean he would get no nutrients anyway.  Plus, throwing up might be too taxing on his weakened body.

It was Ryuan's turn to sit up and watch Dilandau.  Gatty had just gone to sleep a little while ago, and Shesta would take over once Ryuan's period was up.

Ryuan sat on one side of the smoldering ashes of the fire.  Shesta was sleeping across from him, and Gatty was to his left, on the side by the river.  To his right, nearer the forest, lay Dilandau.  None of them could really tell when he was asleep and when he was awake anymore.  Both were spent in a dream-like state, and couldn't be easily told apart.  Ryuan hoped, as well as Shesta and Gatty, that he was getting at least a little rest.

"Nnnnnn…" Dilandau groaned loudly, and started to fidget.  He suddenly stretched his arms out very quickly, knocking the blankets half off him.  He groaned again and was seeming to try to squirm out of the blankets completely.  "Hot…so…hoooooooooooooooooot…" he moaned.

Ryuan got up, gently pushed him onto his back again where he was supposed to be lying still, and covered him back up.  He laid a hand on Dilandau's shoulder when his eyebrows arched down and he protested, trying to throw the blankets off again.

"Don't," Ryuan said, hoping he got through to him.  "You need to stay warm.  If you throw your blankets off like that, you could get a chill, and that would weaken you more than you already are."

Dilandau protested vaguely, but submitted, though he looked rather angry about it.  Ryuan could sympathize.  Whenever he had had a fever, he hated the feeling of being roasted alive, but couldn't throw the blankets off because his doctor had said it would be bad for him.

As Dilandau let his head fall to the side, looking toward the forest, he let his eyes open…and widen impossibly.  There, on the edge of the trees, stood a figure.  The figure was pale, as if coming from a washed-out painting, and was see-through if you looked at it hard enough.  The figure was familiar…but, he had been dead for over a year now…

He reached up and gripped Ryuan's sleeve.  "Help…" he rasped.  "Help me up…"

Confused, but somewhat glad to hear Dilandau speaking a littler clearer than he had the past few days, helped him into a sitting position.

"No…feet…" Dilandau corrected.  He groaned as Ryuan pulled him as gently as he could to his feet, one hand holding onto his upper arm, the other curled around his waist, supporting him as best he could.  Dilandau stared at the figure, his pupils shrinking as three more appeared.

"Master Dilandau…?" Ryuan asked.  "What—"

"Dallet…" Dilandau murmured, as if in a daydream.  "Guimel…Miguel…Jajuka…they're here…!  They're all here!"

Ryuan stared at him, alarmed.  "You're hallucinating, Master Dilandau," he said, trying to sound firm, but his voice was shaking.  He tried to pull him back to the ground.  Dilandau refused.

"No!" Dilandau insisted, his voice thin, resisting Ryuan's efforts to lay him back down.  "No, I'm not!  They're here!  They're really…!"  He reached a hand out toward them, his already jerky breath catching in his throat as the figures receded into the forest.  Dallet was last, and a soft smile slid over his face as he extended his hand in Dilandau's direction in a beckoning gesture.  He faded from view as well.  Dilandau felt a surge of desperate strength, and he sprang forward, a cry tearing from his throat.  "NO!"

Ryuan fell backward to the ground, and Shesta and Gatty jerked awake just in time to see Dilandau's silhouette disappearing into the forest.  All three of them were on their feet in a heartbeat, running as fast as they could in the direction they could hear their master's voice calling the names of their dead ones, praying that neither he nor them slammed into any trees as they ran nearly blind in the dark forest.

Ryuan, who was in front, stopped short as he almost tripped over Dilandau's body.  He was lying completely still on the forest floor in a small open space, as if in a dead faint.  Shesta and Gatty barely managed to keep from running into him.

"W-w-what hap-happened…?" Shesta asked shakily, trembling so violently he couldn't speak without difficulty.  Gatty and Ryuan had bent over Dilandau's body, looking for signs of life.

"He hallucinated the ghosts of Dallet, Guimel, Miguel, and Jajuka," Ryuan replied, and tried desperately to quell his own shaking when he found a faint pulse in Dilandau's neck.

A keening sound suddenly started, and after a few seconds, Gatty and Ryuan realized it was Shesta as it dissolved into a heartbroken wail.  Shesta dropped to his knees, sobbing raggedly.

"It's all over!" he whined, tears streaming down his pale cheeks.  "If he's seeing the dead, then he's going to die!  They came to take him away!"  He couldn't say any more as his weeping overwhelmed him, and he cried like a lost child there on the forest floor.

"Don't SAY that!" Gatty roared, turning from Dilandau to Shesta, catching hold of his heaving shoulders and shaking him roughly.  "If they had come to take him away, then he'd be dead!  They wouldn't have left him here!"  He slapped Shesta when the smaller Dragon Slayer didn't seem to take notice.  Gatty also sounded ready to cry.

"Come on," a quiet voice said behind them, and they both looked over to see Ryuan had Dilandau's ragdoll-limp body in his arms.  "Let's get back."  He stepped past them and started back toward the camp.  His voice was soft and flat, as it was when his emotions were overtaxed.  He was just as afraid as the other two that Dilandau didn't have long to live.

Gatty hauled Shesta to his feet, half-dragging his hysterical comrade back, feeling dead himself as a hopelessness started to settle in his heart.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next day, they hardly said a thing.  Gatty and Dilandau were sharing a horse, as usual, and their leader seemed on his last legs.  He was clearly unconscious, instead of in the half-awake daze he normally was in, and his breathing was shallow, his body jerking in pain every time he inhaled.

Shesta seemed the most upset.  He wouldn't look at anybody, least of all Dilandau, and the odd silence that surrounded him gave the impression that he was forcibly holding tears back.  He had cried himself to sleep last night, and seemed no better today.

Gatty was silent as well, holding Dilandau as comfortably as he could manage, though he doubted Dilandau really noticed something like sitting uncomfortably in his state.  His head suddenly popped up and he stared straight out in front of him.  They were in a very sparse part of the forest, more like a field with the occasional tree.  He had the best eyes, not counting Shesta's psychic ability to see what could not be seen normally, and he could swear he saw a person on the road, way ahead of them.

"Shesta," he said.  "Who is that?  They might be able to help."  He knew he was grasping at straws, and that it was likely someone who couldn't help their situation at all, but he was willing to take any chance, any hope.  Anything to save his dear master.

Shesta looked at Gatty briefly, his eyes strangely empty, then he let his head loll backwards as he extended his mind's eye.  "It's a woman…she's alone and on foot, and she's headed toward the same town we are…and, she's—!"  His head snapped back upright with a strangled gasp, his already large eyes impossibly wide.  "She's…she's a Cleric…!"  His voice was choked.  Without warning, he spurred his horse and sped off toward the lone traveler.

"A…a Cleric…" Ryuan mused, looking toward Gatty, who looked just as astonished as himself.  "Cleric" was a rough translation of what members of some obscure religious sect called themselves—few people outside the sect even knew what the sect was called as a group.  One thing was well-known, though:  they were the only ones who practiced what could truly be called White Magic.  White Magic meant healing spells.

"Oh, thank the gods…" Gatty moaned, sounding very, very tired.  It wasn't certain that this woman would help them, and even if she did, Dilandau was so far-gone that all the healing magic in the world may not save him, but there was hope.  They finally had some kind of real hope that Dilandau might get through this.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The three Dragon Slayers sat in a circle in the shade of a large tree.  Gatty was fiddling with the strap of the water flask he had next to him, Ryuan was staring at a line of ants as it made its way through the grass, and Shesta was nervously gnawing on a rabbit bone from the night before.  All three were very jumpy.  The woman Cleric was middle-aged and kindly, and had thankfully agreed to help them if she could.  However, when she examined Dilandau, she had declared that she might not be able to save him.  She had said she would try her all, though.

Dilandau was propped up against the tree trunk, motionless.  The woman, named Zinnia, was kneeling next to him, one hand on his forehead and the other on his shoulder.  There was no outward sign of any spells cast, so the Dragon Slayers could only guess what was going on.

"Do…do you think he'll make it…?" Shesta asked for the dozenth time.

"I don't know," Ryuan answered, his voice as flat as he could get it.

"I hope so…" Gatty said, sounding as worried as Shesta.

Hours passed.  The shadow of the tree got longer as the Sun moved across the sky, and the Dragon Slayers noticed that Zinnia looked strained, and that she was sweating.  She didn't respond to any of them calling her name, even if they were right next to her, so they left her alone.  She knew what she was doing.

The horses had long since grazed their fill and were standing idly where they had been tethered to a stake when Zinnia finally sighed and sat back, looking quite tired.  The Dragon Slayers saw this and sat bolt upright, staring apprehensively over to her and Dilandau.

"Well…" she began.  "I had to do it very slowly, so I wouldn't exhaust myself, but, I've managed to purge the poison from his body, as well as give him the strength he needs to recover.  He's still feverish, and very weak, but he will live.  I couldn't bring him back to full health, but I've rid him of the poison, and he should survive."  She smoothed her hair back.  "You really ought to thank his draconian blood.  He would have died days ago, if it weren't for that."

"He's…he's going to live…?" Shesta said, sounding like he didn't believe it.  He jumped to his feet and shot over to Dilandau, dropping to his knees and putting his ear to his chest.  The strong, steady heartbeat that reached his ears was the sweetest sound he had heard in his life.  "He's…he's alive…!  He's ALIVE!"  He dissolved into ecstatic weeping, crying into Dilandau's chest.  When Gatty lay his hand on his shoulder, Shesta let go of Dilandau and cried against Gatty's shoulder.  Gatty, too, was shaking with relieved crying.

"How can we ever thank you?" Ryuan asked, his knees and hands hitting the ground as he bowed low before Zinnia in his gratitude.

"Oh, I've made it my duty to help those that need it, sweetie," Zinnia replied, laughing.  She looked very tired, but her eyes were bright.  "I don't ask for any payment.  But, could you four see me into town?  I don't like traveling alone in the wild like this."

"Of course," Gatty said, trying to comfort the sobbing Shesta.  "Of course…anything."

Several hours later, Dilandau clawed his way up out of his sleep, lying in the shade of that self-same tree.  He felt exceedingly weak, but something was different than the last time he remembered waking up.  He felt more…alive.

The dark blur against the dusky sky shivered into focus, and he recognized his smallest Dragon Slayer leaning over him from where he sat beside him.  A grin stretched Shesta's boyish face, and his eyes were sparkling.  "Welcome back, Master Dilandau."

Owari 

**Author's Notes:**  I'm finally done.  I so hope you all liked this.  It took me a couple days to write, which is longer than most of my one-shots.  I hope you don't see the ending as a cop-out, but I had decided not to kill him, but I had him so weak by the time I was ready to wrap it up, that I don't see how he could have lived if he didn't have some kind of magical assistance, and I didn't want to go back and change anything, because I was happy with what I had written.  Also, I believe in miracles, so it's not surprising that I write them into my fics every so often.  So, this is my story about movie Dilandau.  I hope you like! ^_^  Tell me what you think in either a review or an email to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!


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